


From the Fires of Horu

by LordNesquik



Series: Ori Works [4]
Category: Ori and the Blind Forest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23870143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordNesquik/pseuds/LordNesquik
Summary: Most would think Horu to be devoid of life, but even Nibel's greatest inferno is someone's home.
Series: Ori Works [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057112
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	From the Fires of Horu

For all the years he had lived there, Kuna had never seen Mount Horu this chaotic.

The magma constantly poured around him, threatening to swallow him whole as it crashed down from the top of the volcano. Horu was never silent and lava was a fact of life for his kind. At this rate, however, Kuna feared it may erupt at any moment. His own homely nook inside the volcano had long been flooded out and he had resorted to navigating around its many chambers. Despite the constant urge to find somewhere to hide or leave Horu altogether, a need to search for survivors kept him going.

That, and a certain glowing creature that was making its way through the heat.

Kuna believed they were known as spirit guardians. They very rarely entered Mount Horu, as their fur-and-paw bodies were poorly equipped to navigate it without being severely burnt. Those that did were most often in a hurry to attend to something inside the volcano – most often the element of warmth – and get out. They would ask for help if they needed it, but beyond polite greetings, they paid the locals little mind. Still, the Korim knew their role in the forest and paid them whatever respect they could.

Something was very clearly different about this spirit, and it kept Kuna trailing them. Not only were they entering such Horu in the middle of its most active state, but they were exploring _every chamber_ within it. Not many Korim liked doing such a thing even with their fireproof scales, talons, and invulnerability to heat. The chambers were the hard-to-navigate infrastructure of Horu, and here was this very flammable spirit dodging magma and super-heated rock to repair them.

It kept Kuna watching. He wasn’t sure why.

The spirit didn’t seem alone. A strange orb of pure spirit light trailed behind them, slicing apart the corruptions that had invaded Horu since it began its activity. It resembled the spirit light he had seen from afar atop the spirit tree, but Kuna knew that wasn’t possible. It never left its home in the towering branches of the ancient being. Whatever it was, the two of them worked side by side to block the flow of magma inside each of the chambers. Every river they redirected helped empty the basin of magma in the center of Horu.

Kuna supposed they wanted to reach the element of warmth that powered Horu from deep within it. He hadn’t seen it since the magma levels had begun to rise, but spirit guardians had visited it regularly before. It gave the whole forest its heat – and, of course, the Korim’s life inside Horu would be doomed without it.

Kuna thought of scampering out from his hiding place and greeting the spirit. His knowledge of Horu might prove helpful to them, and Kuna was longing to hear another friendly voice. Then again, he knew what the Korim looked like in contrast to the rest of Nibel. That floating pinprick of light might mistake him for a monster and cut him down before he could say a word.

Besides, they hardly seemed like they needed the help. The tiny spirit could practically fly.

To preserve his own hide, Kuna kept to the shadows, trailing them into each chamber. The spirit gracefully jumped thrice in the air, glided on a feather, or boosted themselves from an enemy’s projectile to avoid the dangers within them. It was enchanting to witness.  
  
Soon, the spirit completed their work. They blocked the last flow of magma and ventured into the deepest chamber of Mount Horu. Kuna tried to follow them, but as he leaned to peer in on them past Horu’s final door, a gigantic creature of darkness swooped down on the element of warmth and the spirit bolted from sight. Kuna waited for the creature to fly off before trying to follow the spirit, but his path was blocked by a boulder that had fallen in the way.

While he searched for another way through, something began to nudge at his talons as he walked.  
Magma.

Horu was doomed to erupt.

Adrenaline surged through him. Kuna ran back through the final door, clambered up the rocks in the tunnel, and ascended the central pillar where the exit stood. He turned to where the bridge away from Horu stood, but his first sight was an open pit of lava with the shattered remnants of the bridge sunk into it. Korim could withstand some contact with molten rock but the amount between him and the rest of the bridge would ensnare him and incinerate him alive.

His only way out was through Horu’s peak.

His kind often took trips out of the top of Horu. It was a place known for its tranquility and silence compared to the constant noise within Horu. Kuna had himself made the trip a few times before but doing it while Horu erupted was unthinkable.

It was also his only option.

Still running on fear, Kuna sprinted back into Horu and began to clamber up the beaten rock pathway to Horu’s peak. At times, it was almost vertical, while other times it was broken into collapsing rocks that rolled under his weight. The path grew less stable as he neared the top where Horu’s constant quaking took a greater effect on him and the volcano. Kuna clung to the shattered rock and did his best not to think about the rising tide of magma below him.

The last part of the trail was an oft-forgotten cave not much larger than him with a steep climb out the side of Horu. It was dark and Kuna found himself knocking his head and long, feathery ears against the sides of it often. Rocks came tumbling out of the walls and falling onto his desperately gripping talons. He could see the moonlight dimly peering in from its exit. With a final heave and tired roll, Kuna pulled himself out of Horu. He took a long breath, dusted off his scales, and pushed himself up to look at the forest around him.

It was ablaze. The light of the hungry inferno below Horu danced and lit the night sky with a furious red. Even from atop the volcano, he could hear the crackling of the fires below.

A spot of purple and fiery white soaring through the darkness caught his attention. It was the same great creature of darkness that had attacked the spirit near the element of warmth, and Kuna could see now it was an owl.

So what was it doing flying towards the spirit tree? The ancient being had lost most of its light – that had explained the catastrophes – but nevertheless, it was still a dangerous place for any creature of darkness to be. It landed atop the tree, and Kuna saw one of its talons had a pinprick of light inside. What was it doing there?

The great owl did something with the light and the tree. Kuna squinted to see what and swiftly regret it as light poured in every direction from the tree. It burned his eyes and he quickly snapped his head away from the tree, clutching his closed eyes with his talons.

He heard a wave of energy wash over the land and the crack of a shock wave blasting past Mount Horu. Once it had passed, he heard nothing.

After the groaning of Mount Horu and the constant crackling of the burning forest, silence was a welcome sound. He slowly stood up and observed the aftermath of the shock wave. Around him, the forest was calm again, and the fire that once was had been replaced by the radiant blue light of the spirit tree.

And underneath him, Horu stopped its rumbling. Remembering with a gasp about the state of Horu and all the missing Korim, Kuna scrambled back through the cave he came from and rushed back into Horu’s depths.

**Author's Note:**

> I've got more ideas for Kuna - relatively big ones - but I may have bit off more than I can chew in the writing department. This chapter could stand alone for some time, which I'm alright with.


End file.
